The consciousness that this might well be true and that even now the girls might be talking and laughing at her caused her exceeding shame and bitterness.
Many weeks had passed since that last night that Betty and Alfred Clarke had been together.
In due time Col.

Zane's men returned and Betty learned from Jonathan that Alfred had left them at Ft.

Pitt, saying he was going south to his old home.

At first she had expected some word from Alfred, a letter, or if not that, surely an apology for his conduct on that last evening they had been together.

But Jonathan brought her no word, and after hoping against hope and wearing away the long days looking for a letter that never came, she ceased to hope and plunged into despair.
The last few months had changed her life; changed it as only constant thinking, and suffering that must be hidden from the world, can change the life of a young girl.